1990 about the vert rx7

 

/me slaps the square around a bit with a large trout!

 

Some cars were never meant to be convertibles. The RX7 is one of them.

With the top up, one can think of several reasons to dislike the Mazda RX7 Convertible. With it down, about half of those reasons disappear.

My list of grievances with the RX7 convertible started even before I slid behind the wheel.

Mazda is asking nearly $28,000 for the RX7 convertible. Most come loaded. Some intense haggling ought to drop the price to less than $25,000 - that's if the dealer will drop the price a bit and pass along the factory incentive. Because the cars are no longer selling well, most dealers are flexible on the price.

To put things in perspective, about $28,000 puts you dangerously close to the deal you can get on a new Corvette coupe. The RX7 convertible, even with its stellar handling capabilities and excellent interior, is not in the same league as the Corvette.

That amount of money is about $6,000 more than the most you can spend on a fully loaded new Mustang GT convertible. By virtue of performance alone, the Ford is a much better car than the RX7.

Clearly, the price - escalated in part because of currency fluctuations - is out of line. Here's why: The RX7 convertible is heavy and fairly slow, and the rotary engine buzzes like a paper bag full of bumblebees. This rotary engine, which Mazda says develops 160 horsepower, felt anemic and unrefined. The rotary engine's chief weakness is that it does not produce much torque.

The only way to get performance approaching acceptable is to rev the engine to between 5,000 and 7,000 rpm. Only then does the car begin to behave like a sports car, but even this comes at a price: any trace of respectable fuel economy disappears. I averaged slightly less than 15 miles per gallon with the air conditioning on in city/highway driving.

Several car enthusiast magazines have tested the car and clocked 0-60 mph times ranging from 9.2 seconds to 10.7 seconds. That's about as fast as your garden variety Ford Taurus. To the rotary engine's credit, once you settle into a cruising mode, the racket under the hood disappears and the engine goes about its business without further protest.

There are too many excellent fuel-injected piston engines in cars that sell for much less that could easily outperform the RX7. That's not a comforting thought if you've just spent $25,000 for the Mazda. A souped-up version of Mazda's V-6 from the 929 would be an excellent replacement for the rotary engine, which is just not up to the task of powering a true sports car.

In the styling department, the biggest problem is with visibility. You can't see well out of the rear, and there are two huge blind spots on either side of the car.

With the convertible top up, the blind spots render the car dangerous at best. I suppose one gets used relying on the car's mirrors to circumvent at least some of the visibility problems, but I never felt secure and confident in traffic. I spoke to three people who own or drive these cars frequently, and they said they don't drive often with the top up because the visibility is so poor.

In all fairness, the Mazda is not alone is creating convertibles with poor visibility. With the exception of the Mercedes-Benz 500SL, no new convertible comes with a top that has three windows anymore. One big window in the middle and one small window on either side used to be the way most convertible tops were made.

Another gripe: The top leaks. I've spent a good part of my 14 years of driving behind the wheels of older foreign convertible sports cars. Some of them leaked. They came from the factory that way, and you accepted it. But they never came with an asking price of nearly $28,000. For that money, one expects to stay dry - even in a hurricane.

But on the RX7, Mazda engineers apparently knew they had a leaky top and made what appears to be a half-hearted attempt to fix it. They rigged a cup-shaped piece of ruber weather stripping inside the car that is intended to catch the water and drain it near the bottom of the door. It doesn't work well. This is another example of how this car was never intended to be a convertible.

With the electrically operated top down, you still can't see well out of the rear because the top does not drop into a compartment as it does on most convertibles. Instead it lands on a platform in the rear, obscuring about half the field of vision in the rear view mirror.

Robbed of visibility, I could never explore the car's full handling potential. And handling is one of the two things I liked most about the RX7. The other is the car's interior. The RX7 is one of those rare cars that has a nearly perfect suspension system. You can toss the 3,045 pound car into a very tight curve, and experience little or no body roll. There's just a trace of oversteer. It's tight and responsive.

The brakes, four-wheel discs without an anti-lock system, did a credible job of slowing down the RX7, though on wet pavement the front wheels locked up once.

It is the RX7's interior that is perhaps the car's saving grace. Though the leather seats don't allow much in the way of adjustments, they are firm, comfortable and supportive, especially in the lower back. One problem with convertibles is that with the top down, wind noise has a tendency to drown out the radio. In the RX7, you'll find a pair of small speakers in the headrest with a separate volume control for each. Problem solved.

The controls are usually less than a flick of the wrist away. Gauges are well laid out and easy to read. One wonders, however, why the tachometer is larger than the speedometer and occupies the center position in the gauge package. It should be the other way around. Instead, the speedometer is off to the left. In any case, the RX7 cockpit provides an intimate experience, just like a two-seater sports car should.

As a hardtop, the RX7 is a more affordable, usable and practical car.

There's nothing wrong with the RX7 convertible that a strong piston engine, a $10,000 price cut and a redesigned convertible top wouldn't cure. But that won't happen. There's a new RX7 waiting in the wings that's scheduled to debut sometime after the 1991 model year.

For now, you might want to spend several thousand dollars less on the RX7's smaller brother, the Miata, and be much happier.

 

I like Miatas.

By the way whoever wrote that review is a moron.

 

verts weigh 3045lbs, OUCH, that hurts, but i do agree this guy was a moron, i bet he was eating his words for breakfast, lunch and dinner when the 3rd gen came out, when he said "a 929 V6 would be suited better as the rotary engine could never power a true sports car"

 

What an ***. I love my vert and woldnt trade it for anything. That guy has no clue what he is talking about.

 

I like the verts.
especially the ones that are completely gutted and have a turbo 2 motor in them. full roll bar. oh ya then they look good. Lates Matt22

 

i dont have a vert but this is how i feel about it
the guys who reviewd this
and (dragter been a mustang) get my drift???

 

my favorite...


this guy obviously doesn't know jack$hit about sportscars....LOL

 

here is my impression of him:

And then after the tachometer being in the middle and just occupying space, it has this stupid annoying little buzzer that comes on when you reach the redline, i mean why in the hell would mazda want to do something like that, its just not kosher.

LOLOLOL

 

Jeez, you guys are an emotional bunch! If you though about it for a sec, you'd realise a lot of what he said was spot on. For me, an NA coupe is too slow, let alone a heavier 'vert. My turbo is a different story! The rear vision sucks. The roof leaks, badly sometimes (and has squeaks and rattles that come and go). And US$28,000 (especially back then) is highway robbery! But he rightly praised the handling, the interior, the stereo and other points (the tacho comment was stupid though!). All this doesn't mean i don't love owning and driving my 'vert. I'm just not blinded to its faults.

 

you're extra lucky to have a turbo vert

 

what the hell? I guess the verts have some sort of super interior or some ****, bc my 88GTU and most other RX7s i have seen have the damn god awfullest damn bastardizing pos interior ever. The seats are nice though, thats for sure, haha.

 

Youve never seen the interior of an FD, have you? The interior on the FD makes the FC interior look like a Mercedes

 

The other thing that he forgot (and most of the kids in this forum were too young to know about) was back in '90 the Miata had just come out within the last year, and the dealers were marking up the Miata's to $26k, while dropping the price on the 'verts to $23k or so.

Now if he wanted to compare it to the vette (be it a Chevette or Corvette) or Mustang, he should have mentioned the Miata in the same breath since they were still sellin for $25k as well.

 

I also think some of his comments were true, but I don't appreciate them. But what confuses me is, did this guy write for a newspaper or something? Isn't the tach in the middle in front of the driver acceptable racing practice? And what's with the speedo on the left comment. I may have strange, one off, but most instrument panels I've seen have the speedo on the right side and gauges on the left which is my configuration.
Is he driving a car with the steering wheel on the "wrong" side?
Ralf

 

He is a damn ***...and as sick as a ****... stupid moron

 

Accually man, i saw a 93 touring at the dealership the other day, and after i got done nutting my pants i noticed the interior. The guy that owned offered me a rag as to not drool all over it. It looked nice and solid. Noticed i said Look, they had the security gaurds all over my *** before i had a chance to touch it, haha. Everone tells me the FD interior is ****, but.. to me.. it looks nice. Better than the gay *** cheap looking plastic in FCs (at least the ones i have seen.. all boxy and cheap)

 

You're all forgetting something. Judging by his comments on price, this was written around the time the 'vert came out, about 88-89 I guess. The FD didn't exisit! At the time, the FC had a nice interior. Of course it doesn't look to flash now, it's 15 years old!


Couldn't you have come up with something intelligent to say?

 

I guess he didn't have the car for very long when he wrote the review. Otherwise he also would have written

 

This guy obviously doesn't spend much time behind the wheel of many sports or performance cars.. But nevertheless, most of his comments are not that far off, the Vert is a sharp looking car, but it does not have the go to back up the show, however most true verts were never go cars anyway, this trait is seen even in american verts, most of the big open top highway cruisers came with the smaller of engines available, typically women and people looking for just a cruiser bough the verts, this holds true today, the Plymouth Prowler is no hotrod either...
But before the much hated author goes bumbling on about the lack of virtues the rotary engine has, perhaps he should have driven more than one model instead of generalizing it performance based on the heaviest incarnation..Max

 

This guy shouldn't be reviewing cars, plain and simple. The comment on the big tach made me laugh, this guy is clueless. He generalizes, and thinks that THE slowest RX7 is representative of all of them. He never mentions the Turbo II, because it would make him sound bad. "Ooh, I can't see. I am not confident" he sounds kind of like a fruity BMW driver.

 

Ohh man guys.. I am a diehard RX-7 fan... but don't be BLIND to what this reviewer is saying!!!!
Do you dissagree and say it's a fast, light, agile car with no problems???
Sounds like it.
The rx-7 convertible, in my opinion is a beautifull looking car- but it shouldn't exist.
The rx-7, by it's nature, is a minamilist, PURE, sports car. It was never an amazing seller because it didn't appeal to the masses, it was not cushy enough, didn't have the low end to just brainlessly stomp and go like a mustang. It does have perfect handling, a perfect chassis, and a great engine that sings at high RPMS. A true soul, for those enthustasts that appreciate it.
NONE of thiose good point go along with having a convertible.
The raw sports car appeal CANNOT coexist with a GT stlye criuser.
I agree with almost everything the guy says- exept he showed his true, ignorant colors when he wondered why the tach is in the middle!! HA, that really says it all about his mentality.
A 20b, built tourque heavy for the 4 door Cosmo, would have been a PERFECT match for the heavy chassis of the vert.
But really, the rx7 vert is a great looking car, and if you can afford the horrible mileage, a nice car to drive around the city in.
But from a performance, practicality, or just about any other standpoint, they are slow, heavy and unrefined. Bottom line.
They are also WAY to expensive for what you get.
I would have one in a heartbeat if they performed half as good as they looked though.

 

I agree with all your comments except this one. It should have existed as it did in Japan - as a turbo only. It would have been even more expensive, but would have had much more appeal, even for that writer.
BTW, the JC Cosmo is a 2-door!

 

the vert rex is beautiful, and on a summer day with the top down it gets alot of looks. there is a lack of power, but dont forget mazda designed it in japan with a turbo engine. anyways it looks alot better then the miata and i think its probally a whole lot safer. ive seen wrecked miatas, theres nothing left. wrecked rx7's still are atleast recognizable